Mayor McGinn goes all out on Whole Foods over worker pay

Mayor McGinn goes all out on Whole Foods over worker pay | Local News | The Seattle Times:
"But the reason McGinn gave for coming out against the mixed-use development was unprecedented. It was that the anchor tenant for the complex, Whole Foods, doesn’t pay its workers enough.

“I’m setting a new standard here, that we are going to look at the wages they pay, and benefits, when a company wants to develop with land that involves public property,” McGinn told me in an interview.

“This is the first time anyone has used this justification when making these kinds of decisions,” he added.

McGinn contended in a letter that the nonunion Whole Foods pays “significantly lower” wages and benefits than other grocery stores, including some already in West Seattle. So the idea of allowing Whole Foods to go in there violates the city’s social and economic justice goals."